


There Is Nobody Like You

by frozenCinders



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M, but demyx is something else :), monsterfucker alert, short non-graphic depiction of heavy injury, some kind of au where the org is monster hunters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 06:56:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18773566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozenCinders/pseuds/frozenCinders
Summary: Xigbar had been assigned to hunt what he'd beentoldwas a terribly powerful sea monster that might possibly even be a god.He could not have reasonably expected what was awaiting him at his destination.





	There Is Nobody Like You

This is it. Years of trying to find competent monster hunters so Xigbar wouldn't have to do this shit himself anymore has lead to this, somehow. The very least Saix could have done was give him a partner, but he does suppose nobody can maneuver quite like Xigbar; he'd leave them in the dust to be killed by the sea monster within minutes, realistically. Maybe it's a good thing Saix didn't saddle him with babysitting.

He can see tiny, far-off islands when he approaches the quiet shore. Even taking the distance into account, they seem too small to be much besides some tall masses sticking out of the ocean. He supposes he'll have to investigate either way.

Xigbar adjusts his gravitational pull to be just above land, allowing him to walk on an invisible layer of his own creation over the water. It's only a few inches up, and the waves start splashing at his boots more and more as he walks further. As he thought, the islands are barely big enough to lay across. Xigbar touches land just to make sure there's no information to be gathered, no unexpected artifacts to collect and perhaps summon the monster with, no passed out sailors to save. As if he'd bother.

The islands are empty and disappointing, until he reaches the fifth mass of land. It's somehow smaller than the others, but the ground looks odd. Xigbar digs his feet in to test the dirt and falls right through the ground as it collapses. He catches himself in midair before his velocity reaches a damaging point and looks down. There is a faint turquoise glow that he can't identify the source of lighting the entirety of a large cavern. He touches down lightly, quietly, and keeps his guard up as he looks around.

This place must be important, he figures. The cavern is already extensive, but Xigbar is willing to bet it's even moreso under the huge lake at the far end. He's not much of a swimmer, and the tunnel could easily just lead right back out to the sea anyway. He approaches it just to peer inside but has to leap back in surprise when a hand suddenly reaches out. It's a human hand, Xigbar notices, but he's not about to rest easy.

A second hand joins the first about a foot apart from it and someone pops their head out of the water, sighing as they catch their breath. Xigbar has questions, but he still can't help but feel like this place is sacred, like he's not supposed to be here, so he's not about to announce himself. Instead, he slips into what he's sure would be a blind spot for the stranger, directly above their head and as far behind it as the cave wall will allow him to reach.

He expects the person to get out of the water, but they're content to just rest their head on their arms, the rest of their body still submerged. Well, this isn't getting him anywhere. Xigbar slowly lowers himself until he's just above the stranger and, unable to resist playing a little prank while he's at it, jumps in front of them without warning.

"Woah!" the stranger reacts, falling back into the water. Xigbar turns around just in time for them to pop their head back up.

"Oh, dude... are you a pirate?"

Xigbar didn't expect the question, though he supposes he _is_  a suspicious man wearing an eyepatch at sea. He laughs.

"As if. I'm in the business of hunting, not stealing," he says, and the stranger hefts himself mostly out of the water but doesn't get out.

"Do you like music?" he asks, and it hits Xigbar that the reason he won't come out of the water is probably because he's a siren. He braces himself for that possibility.

"Not really," he answers nonchalantly.

"Aw, man... I finally meet a human again after _how_  many years and you don't even like music?"

He hops completely out of the water now, revealing a seemingly normal human form despite his cryptic words. Xigbar doesn't know enough about sirens to discredit his theory yet.

"So... what _do_  you like, then?" he asks as he hops to his feet, a good few inches shorter than Xigbar. "Swimming? Stargazing? Exploring? Come on, we've gotta have something in common!"

"I already told you, buddy, I'm a hunter." Xigbar pauses for a second before adding, "Not that I enjoy my job very much. Putting my life on the line to kill one of a kind monsters? Eh, I'd pass if I could. They're only dangerous about half the time, anyway."

"Oooh, what kind of monsters? Like, big dragons and stuff?"

"Can't say I've ever seen a dragon."

"Do you want to?"

Xigbar is a little stunned by the question, and the stranger is talking again before he has a chance to respond.

"Hey, what's your name? Mine's Demyx," he introduces, pointing cheerily at himself with his thumb.

"Xigbar," he reciprocates, because hey, why not?

"Ok, Xigbar, are you ready to see something awesome?" Demyx asks, clearly excited.

"Sure. Lead the way, champ," Xigbar encourages, expecting Demyx to make him swim out to spot the sea monster he's looking for.

He was wrong.

Before his eye, Demyx's features morph until they're much sharper and more dangerous-- and eventually, blue. Xigbar has to take several steps back during the process due to how large the transformation ends up being. Once fully draconic, a now extremely dangerous head full of fangs, each about the size of Xigbar's hand, swings down towards him. In his eyes, Xigbar can see just as much harmless enthusiasm as in his human form.

Well, this is unfortunate for Demyx.

"Now, why'd you have to go and show me that, you big doofus," Xigbar sighs as he summons his arrowguns, making Demyx's head rear back just slightly in confusion. "I _just_  told you I'm a monster hunter. You sure look like the sea monster I'm looking for."

With speed Xigbar couldn't have seen coming, he finds himself batted to the ground and pinned there, sharp claws digging into the ground around him. He manages to keep a grip on his weapons but he can only move one arm in this position, and just barely.

"I'd say I didn't think you'd turn on me so quick, but that'd be pretty hypocritical of me, wouldn't it?" Xigbar jokes, applying lower gravity to Demyx's foot in an attempt to get out from under it, but this dragon is strong as hell.

Demyx responds, but it's in a language Xigbar can't grasp. His tone doesn't sound angry, at least, or Xigbar might end up as dragon food during his very first encounter with one, like some kind of rookie.

"I, uh, didn't quite catch that," he says in case Demyx isn't even aware of the language barrier. "Tell you what. Why don't you transform back and I'll pretend I didn't see anything?"

He makes the offer mainly because he doesn't think his bullets can pierce this hide, especially now that he's feeling it crush him into the ground. No point in fighting a losing battle.

Xigbar holds still as Demyx turns back, his body following the point of pressure he was applying, ending up with Demyx's entire human form on top of Xigbar by the time he's done. Xigbar raises a hand, arrowgun still held in a firm grip, but Demyx ducks away from it and... kisses him?

Xigbar is absolutely stunned.

"Can't kill me if we're married," Demyx remarks as he pulls away like any of that sentence made sense in context.

"Wh... what?"

"That's how it works, right? You get your true love's first kiss and then you get married."

Xigbar has a feeling that Demyx, like Xigbar, has no idea what he's talking about.

"I think you've grossly misunderstood human culture there, buddy," Xigbar says, but he can't help an amused grin. He lets his arrowguns fall away regardless.

"But you're smiling. And you're not pointing stuff at me anymore."

He has a point. Xigbar slides a hand behind Demyx's neck and pulls him closer.

"Tell me what you are," he commands, his grin having faded away.

"... In love," Demyx answers, that goofy smile absent from his face as well.

"We _just_  met. Besides, don't you wanna go fall in love with some other dragon?" Xigbar reasons.

"Come visit me a lot," Demyx says, avoiding the question like he has no interest in it. "How long 'til we get a honeymoon?"

Xigbar has no idea what to tell him. For some reason, the phrase "not interested" doesn't occur to him at all.

"I'm not walking all the way out here and falling down this hole again all the time," he says instead, a reasonable argument.

"Thennn... can I go home with you?" Demyx asks, his eyes all innocent.

"Buddy, if I leave, you don't have to worry about me killing you. I just won't come back."

Taking him back to the base would be an accident waiting to happen. As soon as he gets excited and shapeshifts in front of someone, he'll have about ten hunters on him at once and Xigbar won't be able to show lazy mercy on him again.

But Demyx just tilts his head and stares at him, and Xigbar remembers him mentioning that he's gone years without human contact. Xigbar can understand loneliness like that, it's just the sudden marriage angle (with a sea dragon god, no less) that's odd.

Fuck it.

"If you're coming with me, you're officially some guy I picked up off the streets. You can't let _anyone_  see what you just showed me, got it?" he yields, and he suspects it's only because having Demyx lying on top of him like this is putting him in a weird mood.

"So I'm your little secret now?" He rolls off of Xigbar and hops to his feet again, and Xigbar has to wonder how that lopsided almost-skirt manages to stay on his hips. Well, hip, singular.

"You know, I wouldn't have expected a god to be so cheery," Xigbar deflects.

"Humans are so quick to call stuff gods," Demyx deflects right back. "Were you really gonna kill me if I was one?"

"Hey, just doing my job."

"Pfft, no you're not. I'm still alive!"

"Don't push it."

Demyx makes toward the lake again and Xigbar grabs him by the arm to stop him. Demyx somehow manages to "stumble" into him and "accidentally" cuddle up against his chest. Xigbar knows he did it on purpose, but he lets him have his fun. He opens a dark corridor and pulls him through, but Demyx doesn't even seem to notice.

"We're here," Xigbar tells him, though his tone falters as he realizes Demyx is borderline naked and still soaking wet and he just has him in his room, suddenly.

"Already? Wowie!"

He's... kind of adorable. Xigbar makes a face at that thought and fetches a towel from his attached bathroom. When he comes back after mere seconds, Demyx is already one step ahead and digging through his wardrobe to borrow an outfit.

"Dry off first," Xigbar scolds, throwing the towel at him. "Quit touching stuff while you're all wet."

"Am I gonna wear your clothes and sleep in your bed with you from now on?" Demyx asks, and Xigbar almost hates to rain on his parade.

"You can wear my clothes _once,_  until we get you your own, and you'll get a room here too. Not mine."

Demyx pouts.

"Not cool. I thought we were married," he complains as if that were ever actually true.

"Well, we can be partners in arms now, huh? Because you're about to become one of us."

It's a sudden thought and Xigbar still doesn't know that it'll work out, but he's gotten a taste of how powerful Demyx is, so he can be Xigbar's secret weapon for if he's ever head over heels again-- no, _in over his head_  again. He must be tired.

His clothes are a little big on Demyx. He refuses to acknowledge any thoughts past that. This creature isn't even human, Xigbar reminds himself. The dumb and cheery personality is probably an act, too.

At least he's clothed and mostly dry now, so Xigbar can see about introducing him to Xemnas. First, though, he has to report his mission failure to Saix. That's always fun.

"I tasked you with killing a sea monster, not fetching a..." he looks Demyx up and down, "degenerate."

"Hey!"

"Yeah, I know, but I couldn't find the damn thing and then this guy came along and kicked my ass. I figured we could use him." It's almost the whole truth.

Saix doesn't seem convinced.

"Yeah, trust me, I didn't see it coming either," Xigbar mumbles loud enough for him to hear. Eventually, Saix relents.

"The decision ultimately falls to Xemnas," he reminds him, and Xigbar nods and turns around, leading Demyx to the meeting room. Xemnas is usually found there if not staring into space on the balcony.

The meeting area is a large room that always has something or other leaning against its walls. Currently, he can identify 3 different weapons just sitting around. He also notices that someone added a potted plant to the corner-- or maybe that's been there, actually.

"Who have you brought me?" Xemnas steps out of his adjoined office to ask.

"New recruit, if you'll have him. Doesn't look it, but he's crazy strong."

Demyx waves at him. Xemnas gives Xigbar one of his age old "a little concerned yet reluctantly acceptant" looks.

"I will trust your judgement and allow him into our ranks, then. If he requires training, I expect you to see to it personally," he adds, and Xigbar wants to say that won't really be possible, but he keeps his mouth shut.

He gets permission to pick out one of the empty rooms for Demyx and he tells him to stay put in there at night.

"Anyway, you know how to fight in your human form too?"

"Yeah, just not with weapons," Demyx says.

"Eh... good enough. No one else needs to see you fight, so you can rely on that other form as much as you need to."

"I thought you said I'm officially some dude you picked up off the floor?"

"I said _street,_  Demyx," Xigbar laughs, "and yeah, in front of everyone else. But if I take you along with me to a tough fight, I expect you to be a giant dragon again."

"You're the only human who's seen me like that anyway." Xigbar doesn't know how to feel about that casual claim. "I'm good at keeping it a secret by now."

* * *

 

Xigbar thought at first that Demyx's weird alien-like "convenience crush" on him was just infatuation (though what he could be infatuated _with,_  Xigbar has no clue), but it has now been months of Demyx doing essentially nothing but dodging missions that aren't with Xigbar and learning how to play a bunch of stringed instruments to serenade him with. Apparently, he had a little harp somewhere in that cave that he never ended up going back for. These days, he favors a sitar.

Today has been a rare quiet day, which is what Xigbar calls any day where he doesn't have to hear Demyx sing a love song to him. They're all silly and carefree at least, because Xigbar might not be able to handle the secondhand embarrassment of watching that oaf try to be genuinely romantic. Xigbar can tell he writes his own songs since nobody else could come up with that nonsense, and he can at least applaud Demyx's creativity and humor.

He hears a strum and can tell the quiet day has come to an end.

"Ohh, why don't you love me so, pretty human who fell down the hole--"

Xigbar chokes on his coffee.

"--not sure if so really rhymes with hole, probably should have just rhymed hole with hole... yo. Oh, are you okay?" Demyx stops singing to ask, coming over to pat Xigbar's back as he saw Axel do for Saix the other day, who was quick to slap his arm away and continue coughing. Xigbar isn't so aggressive, and he eventually calms his coughing fit.

"Pretty?" he can't help but laugh. He's not even offended, he just thinks it's hilarious. _Pretty,_  like he's Marluxia or someone. Like he doesn't have a big ol' scar taking up a good chunk of his face. Like he doesn't have a gaping hole in his head where his eye used to be.

Demyx seems unaware of the humor of it and is idly playing with a few strands of Xigbar's ponytail. He's gentle enough that Xigbar has to look to notice, because he can't feel it.

"Think you need to get your eyes checked, there," he says quietly.

"Oh, I thought you laughed because I used the wrong human word."

"See, you can't be saying stuff like that at home," Xigbar reminds him. "The phrase "human word" is kind of a dead giveaway that you're not one."

"Sure I am, look at me!"

He doesn't, because he can feel that he's in another one of those moods where if he glances at Demyx's eyes, he won't be able to look away.

"Anyway, you're the one who needs to get your eye checked," Demyx says, starting to half-assedly braid Xigbar's hair. He clearly doesn't know how to do it, so it stays loose no matter how hard he tries.

"Nah, I've known me for a hell of a lot longer than you have. Trust me on this one."

"Well I'm older than you, so, like, respect your elders and stuff. I'm right and you're wrong and blehhh."

Xigbar can tell he's sticking his tongue out.

* * *

Demyx saves Xigbar's life once.

An invisible field that rejects all magic, leaving Xigbar essentially powerless, is revealed in advance by Demyx suddenly losing his human form without warning. He seems alarmed by it, though he's now lost his ability to speak any language other than that deep growl Xigbar can't comprehend for the moment, so he's just going by his tone and gestures.

"Alright, you need to stop bouncing around, you're causing an earthquake here," Xigbar chides, and he tries and fails to summon his arrowguns. Well, shit. The only other weapon he has is a switchblade in his boot, and that is not a sufficient weapon to fight a mutated elemental with. Good thing he thought to bring Demyx today, as Xigbar always hates when his enemies are just as good with projectiles as he is.

The elemental manages to ambush them and, while Demyx swats away most of the sharp chunks of hail with his tail, Xigbar takes a hit to the back that knocks the wind out of him and brings him to his knees. He knows he got hit and all, but the fact that he can't catch his breath or get back up confuses him. It doesn't hurt enough to debilitate him like this.

It makes sense when he glances over his shoulder and sees a piece of ice practically as big as his whole back embedded in him. The fact that it's ice bothers him, because he has no idea if this is better or worse than if it were a normal solid. His medical knowledge is absolutely minimal.

Demyx must take the mutant down at some point that Xigbar doesn't register. His eyes feel exhausted like he's been up all night crying, but he knows he probably shouldn't fall asleep. The absolute discomfort of being picked up and held in a dragon's jaw unsettles him enough to keep him awake. He knows Demyx is probably trying his best to be gentle, and Xigbar is feeling pretty numb all around at the moment, but he'll bet those fangs will have caused more injuries by the time they reach the base.

He's too out of it to worry until it happens, but Lexaeus is at the front entrance when they arrive. Xigbar can't try to smooth the situation over because he is currently incapable of speaking, and Demyx certainly isn't graceful at social interaction. He's gently set down at a shocked Lexaeus's feet and he feels a few quakes from Demyx running away before he takes off, probably to go hide and transform back in privacy so as not to blow his cover.

Their medical team has always been incredible, so Xigbar is already stable by the time Demyx bursts through the doors screaming. He stops short when he sees Xigbar looking at him before running to his bedside and crying into the sheets with a big dumb smile on his face.

Demyx makes a habit of sleeping next to Xigbar from then on, which continues even after he's recovered.

* * *

It's when Xigbar is lying on his stomach almost ready to fall asleep to the feeling of Demyx tracing the horrid scar covering his back that he randomly realizes he hasn't argued the past five or six times Demyx has said that they're married. He always finds a joke to respond with so he doesn't have to deny it. He also realizes that Demyx hasn't kissed him again since the day they met. He probably thinks it's just a wedding ceremony thing.

Without warning, Xigbar twists and reaches for Demyx, pulling him down by the collar of his shirt and locking him in a kiss. His response is enthusiastic, but _boy_  is he bad at it. Xigbar has to pull away to laugh.

"Well, hopefully you'll get better with practice," he says. He happens to glance at Demyx's face and sees the giddiest little sparkle in his eyes.

"Oh, quit looking at me like that, you had to know this was coming." He says that, but Xigbar himself didn't even see it coming. "Now go to sleep."

Demyx curls up around him and Xigbar thinks he must have partially dragshifted, because he feels something scratchy and uncomfortable wrap around one of his legs. Demyx is usually so dedicated to keeping his secret that he doesn't show his true features no matter what, but apparently, he's so excited that Xigbar kissed him that he just _has_  to have an extra limb to wrap around him.

The tail scratches his leg up something fierce when he moves, but Xigbar turns onto his side to hold Demyx right back. Xigbar never thought he'd fall in love, least of all with a big stupid sea dragon in human form, but he guesses that's just one of life's ridiculous pranks it loves to pull on him.

**Author's Note:**

> i don't have lore for this au i'm just gay. here's how it happened:
> 
> me earlier: i need to write a fic where demyx complains about not having a nickname so xigbar calls him little mermaid  
> my brain:  
> me: actually it's mermay so maybe--  
> my brain, the absolute madman: what? shapeshifting sea dragon demyx and morosexual dragonfucker xigbar? you got it chief  
> me:


End file.
